Ask not what US can do for us, ask what we can do together -- Jaswant

Ask not what US can do for us, ask what we can do together -- Jaswant
JYOTI MALHOTRA

New Delhi, March 17: Even as the hoopla and a carnival atmosphere begins to dominate the atmosphere of President Clinton's forthcoming visit, New Delhi feels that the trip is truly an event that marks the end of one, long Cold War chapter in bilateral relations and the beginning of another where both sides will complement each other's strengths.

``Yes, we have differences, but so what,'' said External Affairs minsiter Jaswant Singh to a group of journalists today, adding with a rhetorical flourish, ``aren't there differences within every family...Certainly we're not a squabbling family, we belong to the family of democracies.''

Singh pointed to the narrowing differences between the two sides in a variety of substantive issues like Kashmir and nuclear non-proliferation, that had added to the Cold War distrust and suspicion of each other.

``This is an institutional visit, not an individual one,'' Singh said, pointing out that irrespective of the party coming to power in the US next year, ``the future'' would be the theme of this trip, even as the ``backlog of the past will be attended to.''

In any case, said Singh, the ``visit should not be viewed as what US should give India, its not as if India is still in the PL-480 years, but what we can do complementing each other's strengths.''

Asked if the US had shifted its position on Kashmir as had been indicated by US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright some days ago, the minister said, ``There is much greater realism (in the US) on Kashmir,'' he said, adding, ``the fixed articulation of yesteryear has been abandoned, even though the movement is always cautious and step by step.''

New Delhi believes Albright's comments, that the Line of Control should be frozen between India and Pakistan, could be a major step to break the impasse on Kashmir. It is a view that Pakistan rejects, but one that India privately feels would be the best solution to the Kashmir problem that has fanned hostility between the two neighbours for 50 years.

Singh also pointed out that the ``alarmist'' nuclear flashpoint theory propounded by Pakistan which had led to the ``international community intruding'' into the region, had largely fallen into disuse.

``It is very reassuring that no one is disturbed by the Federation of American Society photographs (which showed Pakistani missiles pointing in India's direction), it is something that the international community has known all along,'' he said.

On the differences that remained, Singh said that India regarded the ``whole sanctions regime as inequitous and unjustified'', adding that Washington had been told that they ``served no purpose.''

Justifying the presidential visit even though sanctions continued to be in place, Singh said the ``US wanted to visit and so they are coming''.